AFRICA: International Bodies Kick Off Discussion on Gender Parity in Africa

The UN Millennium Campaign, Femnet and Oxfam GB announced here Thursday the commencement of a series of global conversations to discuss the status of the promises world lea ders have made to women in the Millennium Development Goals.

The conversations, to be broadcast live on Facebook, began Wednesday and will end this Friday. It will involve leading gender activists on the continent.

The activists are connected over Skype (which allows people to make free voice and video calls) with African citizens in real time to discuss gender empowerment, decent work and maternal health from the sidelines of the Co mmission on the Status of Women being held at the United Nations in New York this week.

Gender equality and empowerment of women make the third goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The UN Millennium Campaign, headquartered in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, was established in 2002 by the UN Secretary General to support citizens' right to hold their governments to account for the achievement of the MDGs.

The MDGs were adopted by 189 world leaders from the north and south, as part of the millennium declaration, which was signed in 2000. These leaders agreed to achieve the eight goals by 2015 on the premise they are the first generation that can end poverty and we refuse to miss this opportunity.

Among the speakers, the statement said, is former President of the Pan-African Parliament, Ms Gertrude Mwongela, from Tanzania. She is scheduled to join Monica Amollo and Pauline Awoko from gender activists in Kenya in discus sing African women's empowerment.

Ms Olufunmilayo Balogun-Alexander, Technical Adviser at the International Planned Parenthood Federation, will speak about maternal health with Alice Dora Amoyaw, Midwife in-charge and Administrator of the Alidor Maternity Home in Ghana and Cecilia Senoo-Ledonou, a nurse and midwife in Ghana.

On Thursday, the gender activists will participate in a global conversation focused on decent work. African women dominate the ranks of people employed in highly dangerous environments such as plantations, mines or commercial sex. Over the past 10 years, governments have made the least progress on the MDGs related to women.

The global conversations aim to build support and momentum for world leaders' promises to women ahead of International Women's Day, to be marked 8 March and the high-level review of the MDGs, to be held in New York in September.

''The goal of the unscripted conversations is to foster dialogue across borders about these issues, the progress that has been made, the challenges that remain and the roles that governments and citizens in both rich and poor countries have to play in solving these problems,'' the statement said.